SYRIANA
George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright
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Talk about frustrating. Syriana doesn't work, and yet it does. For the first 90 minutes of director-writer Stephen Gaghan's admirably ambitious geopolitical thriller about how American business and political interests play out in the Persian Gulf, a befuddled viewer sits there going, "Huh?"
Gaghan wrote Traffic, the 2000 hit about narcotics, and with Syriana, he tries a similar approach—multiple story lines and a bevy of players—to dramatize the U.S.'s far-reaching involvement in the Middle East. His broad cast of characters includes a CIA undercover operative (Clooney), a high-powered energy analyst (Damon), an elite Washington, D.C., lawyer (Wright), plus politicians, Texas oil bosses, and Arab rulers and terrorists. Sometimes their agendas mesh while at other times they conflict—with deadly results. Any resemblance to actual figures is more than coincidental.
The problem with Syriana is that for a long stretch, it's tough figuring out just what the heck is going on, who's connected to whom, what it all means and where it's going. Then the sprawling story snaps into sharp focus, the connections become crystal clear, and one is left shaken by the film's deeply pessimistic message. But should a movie take this much work? There's no faulting the performances (the cast includes Chris Cooper, Christopher Plummer and Amanda Peet), though only Clooney's spook and Damon's businessman break through as actual characters rather than types. (R)
FAMILY
Yours, Mine & Ours
Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo
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Comedy isn't pretty. It's messy and icky. At least it is for Quaid, who in this workaday remake of a 1968 film is required—for purposes of our amusement—to slip on vomit, flip overboard from a ship, get slimed by wallpaper paste and unidentifiable green goo and step into a bucket of paint.
The above should make clear that Yours, Mine & Ours is no exercise in high-minded humor. Utterly predictable, it ploddingly tells how two widowed parents (Quaid and Russo), onetime high school sweethearts, meet decades later and wed, to the consternation of their combined 18 children. The kids, who range from preschooler to late teen, conspire to split up Dad and Mom before eventually realizing that bigger is better.
Reliable jokes from the original picture (meals dispensed via lazy Susan) are recycled here, with the addition of several antic musical montages that serve as time wasting filler. Quaid and Russo perform gamely, and the child stars are requisitely cute, even when called upon to be obnoxious. Younger viewers will enjoy and possibly be moved by Yours, though their more discerning chaperones will recognize that, as full-house movies go, 2003's Cheaper by the Dozen was a work of genius next to this one. (PG)
MUSICAL
Rent
Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs, Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp
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Everyone sings and dances their heart out in Rent—and none of it matters. In bringing the Broadway hit about young bohemians living with the specter of AIDS in 1989 to the big screen, director Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) has lost the musical's sense of urgency and made the supposedly grungy streets of Manhattan's East Village look movie studio sparkly. When the cast sings, "There's only now," you'll agree and wonder why you're wasting it on this vapid attempt at transferring live stage magic to celluloid. (PG-13)
COMEDY
Just Friends
Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart
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Watching snarky guy Ryan Reynolds do everything except balance a three-legged stool on his nose to keep this likable dumb comedy chugging along, one is reminded of early Bill Murray or Michael Keaton. Like Reynolds, they were able to inject big laughs into minor movies through sheer force of comic will. Just Friends showcases Reynolds as a former fatty who returns, now svelte and successful, to his hometown to woo high school crush Smart. But the suaver he tries to be, the more he stumbles.
Just Friends is a cut above Waiting, Reynolds's anemic last vehicle, featuring better developed characters and snappier direction. Though much of the humor is broad—there's a running joke in which Reynolds viciously pummels his bratty younger bro (Chris Marquette)—if you're not feeling too picky, this one will keep you chuckling. (PG-13)
CRIME
The Ice Harvest
John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielson, Oliver Platt
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Like a Cracker Jack box in which the prize is missing, there's plenty of tasty stuff in this comic film noir, but that which you desire most—a coherent plot—is not to be found. Based on a novel by Scott Phillips and directed with no discernable feeling for the material by Harold Ramis (Analyze This), The Ice Harvest features Cusack as a lawyer in Wichita, Kans., who, aided by Thornton, steals $2 million from a Mob boss. Or something like that. Plot logistics are not Ice's strong suit.
What the movie does boast, in spades, is nimble dialogue and capable acting. Platt, in particular, hilariously lurches through Ice as an amiable drunken slob, stealing every scene he's given. (R)
>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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Daniel Radcliffe and crew are back for the fourth, and best, Harry Potter film yet. In this one, Harry finally comes face-to-face with the evil Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, supremely scary). (PG-13)
Pride & Prejudice
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Jane Austen's romantic novel is well served by this latest adaptation, featuring appealing performances by swan-necked Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and hulking Matthew Macfadyen as a disapproving Mr. Darcy. Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench costar. (PG)
The Squid and the Whale
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Despite its ungainly title, this comic drama is an artful, knowing look at how the breakup of the marriage between two Brooklyn intellectuals (Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney, both outstanding) affects their two sons.(R)
- Contributors:
- Leah Rozen.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
